42 Entertainment is an American company based in Burbank which specializes in creating and producing alternate reality games (ARGs). The company was founded in 2003 as an independently owned, creative content and interactive agency under the name 4orty 2wo Entertainment.[1] The company started with a nine-person management team and was originally based in Emeryville, California. It produces alternate reality games, including campaigns for Xbox and PS3 titles, the movie The Dark Knight, and the Nine Inch NailsYear Zero album.

Contents

While the company did not officially launch until 2003, many of those who would become the management team were involved with creating and producing "The Beast" for Warner Brothers to promote the Steven Spielberg film A.I.[2] The project was developed by Microsoft.[3]

In 2004 42 Entertainment produced I Love Bees, the prequel to the Xbox game Halo 2. Other projects followed in 2005, such as (client in parentheses) Hex 168 (Microsoft Gaming Studios/Xbox 360), MSN Found (Windows Live Search) and Last Call Poker (Activision’s GUN). In 2006, the company created Dead Man’s Tale, an interactive game for Windows Messenger and Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean.

In 2007, 42 Entertainment created The Vanishing Point for Windows Vista, which offered a sub-orbital trip to space as a grand prize. The company was also behind Year Zero, which had them working with Trent Reznor to build out a world for the Nine Inch Nails album Year Zero. The Year Zero game was hailed by Rolling Stone as "the most innovative promotion scheme since the leaked sex tape."[15] Although Reznor insisted that the game was an extension of the album rather than a marketing attempt,[16] it nonetheless was awarded a Cyber Grand Prix for digital marketing at the 2008 Cannes Lions.[17]

Starting in 2008, projects from 42 Entertainment include Stop the International (Columbia Tri-Star), If Looks Could Kill (Burrell/Toyota Camry), Bizarro is Here (Six Flags), Project Abraham (SCEA's Resistance 2), and Why So Serious?, an alternate reality game for the Warner Bros. movie The Dark Knight. In 2009, 42 Entertainment started the Flynn Lives Campaign for the Disney film Tron: Legacy.